FAQs

In the gold open access route to publishing, some journals require that the author pay an article processing charge (APC). For open access journals this APC helps to cover the journal’s costs and ensures that the content remains free to readers.

HEFCE have mandated green open access for the next REF. The policy applies to papers accepted from 1 April 2016 has two major parts:

Part 1 Deposit: Deposit your final peer-reviewed manuscripts of journal articles and conference proceedings into an institutional repository or subject repository within three months of publication. From April 2017 you'll be required to deposit within three months of acceptance.

Part 2 Open Access: Papers must be open access as soon as possible after publication and must not exceed the embargo limits (12 months REF Main Panel A & B; 24 months REF Main Panel C & D).

Both the metadata about the article and copies of the article itself should be held in the institutional repositories of all involved institutions.

If there are multiple QUB authors on a paper only one author needs to deposit the paper as it will appear on the research profiles of any QUB authors added to the record. However if there is institutional collaboration then all institutions involved should deposit to ensure REF eligibility.